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Palais Galliera celebrates the work of Martin Margiela with Parisian retrospective

February 26, 2018

March 3 to July 15, the French capital's Palais Galliera fashion museum will be home to the first Parisian retrospective dedicated to Martin Margiela.

The exhibition will trace the career of the Belgian designer and his conceptual approach to fashion from spring/summer 1989 to spring/summer 2009. Palais GalleriaThe only Belgian designer of his generation to establish his own fashion house in Paris, Martin Margiela left his mark on the world of ready-to-wear and couture fashion thanks to his nonstandard approach, at times switching focus to the crude, the unseen, the things that others prefer to hide, rather than the elegant and the beautiful.

The designer and founder of Maison Margiela, who trained at Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts, worked under Jean Paul Gaultier before setting up his own fashion house. His work attracted attention very quickly, challenging the fashion aesthetics of the time with deconstructed garments -- exposing linings, unfinished parts, patterns, etc. -- and with oversized garments or dolls' clothes scaled up to human size.

Beyond his collections, the designer's wider universe was also known to provoke intrigue and interest. Indeed, with his unusual venue choices for the label's shows -- from car parks and warehouses to metro stations -- Martin Margiela once again challenged the norm.

The French capital's Palais Galliera will celebrate his work and his unique approach from March 2018, with a retrospective featuring around a hundred silhouettes, as well as fashion show videos, archives and installations. Highlights include a waistcoat made from 47 fragments of broken porcelain and faience, a wrap skirt made from second-hand flea-market scarves and a top made from inside-out wigs.